Maryland claims top spot on annual wealth ranking

MD was home to more millionaires than any other state in the country in 2016.

Maryland was home to a higher percentage of millionaire households than any other state in the country last year, according to a new report released Thursday.

It was the fifth year in a row that Maryland claimed the top spot on the annual Wealth & Affluent Monitor published by New York-based Phoenix Marketing International. Maryland was followed by Connecticut, New Jersey and Hawaii.

Households with at least $1 million in "investable assets" — a range of items that includes retirement accounts, stocks and cash accounts — represented more than 7 percent of all households in Maryland in mid-2016, according to the analysis.

Nationwide, that share was about 5.5 percent, growing 4 percent during 2016 to 6.8 million households.

Despite their small numbers, those families controlled 59 percent of all liquid wealth in the country.

"The trends we've seen over the past 10 years show a deeper and wider wealth divide as families in the near- and emerging affluent segments fall further behind financially," said David Thompson, managing director of the firm's Affluent Practice, in a statement.

Check out the Maryland billionaires who made Forbes' 2014 list of the 400 wealthiest people in the country.

The report found that the most rapid growth in assets occurred in that group, with wealth continuing to concentrate in the top 1 percent of households.

The report uses multiple surveys, including the Survey of Consumer Finances administered by the Federal Reserve.

This article has been updated with Maryland specific numbers and to clarify that the report documents the percentage of millionaire households.